Track Stars

This is news only really of interest to grandparents and devoted aunts and uncles. Patrick and Annie competed in a school district track meet today. Annie had a third place finish in both the 50 meters and the high jump (yes, really). Patrick had a first place finish in the high jump and the 100 meters, and third place finishes in the 200 and 400 meters. Patrick was also the lead off runner for the boys' 4x100 relay team, which finished first, despite some trash-talk from one of the other elementary schools. :) OK - now, does this take any of the shine off of these results: grades 4-6 do what is known as a "standards" track and field competetition. Which means that Annie did not necessarily finish in the third spot in her competetitions, but acheived a third place TIME. I think this to avoid having anyone with hurt feelings. Even little slow kids can get a certificate. Patrick's relay team did beat out a bunch of other teams in that competition, however. While on the one hand, I am all for kids not feeling vastly inferior because of their poor genetics, no one is really fooling the kids. At the end of each school term, the elementary school has an awards assembly. Kids get awards for the various school subject areas, and overall awards based on grade point average. The last time I congratulated Annie on one of her awards, she said to me, "Everyone gets something." So, the kids have it figured out. Still, I have to commend teachers for innovations like not letting children choose their own teams in PE.

(Let it be known that this writer was the smallest in her class every year and that she always got picked to be the one "coming on over" in Red Rover because she was too tiny to break through anyone's arm holds.)

Visiting Toronto

So this is for all of you who are wondering, "What's there to do in Toronto? I hope that it won't be like visiting Ryan and Amy in Saskatchewan..." Here are a couple of websites to check out and help you plan your next vacation:
http://www.torontotourism.com/visitor/HomePage.htm

http://www.toronto.com/

We'll be living about an hour from the city, so the sky (or the SkyDome) is the limit!

Lake House Relaxation and House-Hunting

We just returned from a fabulous vacation, courtesy of Mom and Steve, who graciously allowed us to interrupt their lives for two weeks. They live right on a lake in the lovely Northwest - complete with private dock. The kids had so much fun kayaking, paddle-boating, playing with dogs, and searching for wildlife (thanks, Steve for coming up with "Wildlife Bingo") that they never once asked to watch TV. Ryan and I got away to Ontario for a couple of days of house-hunting near Hamilton. (Why is it that it is so much cheaper to fly to Ontario from Seattle, than it is to fly to Ontario from Regina? It is over a 1000 miles further!) It is stressful to know that you have less than two days to find a home, but God was gracious and dropped the perfect home right in our laps. Caledonia, Ontario will be our home as of July 21st. We're excited at the prospect of hosting friends and family and showing off the wonders of the Niagra region, the Greater Toronto Area, and Festival Country. Thank you Gloria Payton, real estate agent Extraordinare! We arrived back in Seattle in time to celebrate, Hawaiian style, the birthdays of our own 10 year old, Annie Kate, and my new sister, Deanna. (Of course, all family members present were thinking wistfully of last summer's jaunt to the actual Hawaii -- Mom, Steve, what about next year?)

Are we trendy yet?

I've resisted the whole blogging thing -- I gave in to Facebook ("to connect with my students") but insisted I would not, could not blog. Everyone's blogging. No one will read it. And yet, here I am. I am a blogger. Perhaps I will be a "Diary of Anne Frank"ish blogger and my words are now for posterity. More likely, it will be one more thing on an ever growing to-do list. But, my family has become increasingly hostile about my lack of updates on and photos of their neice/nephews/grandchildren. I can't seem to send a photo over email without inadvertently taking up all of the available memory in my friends' and relatives' inboxes. So, I thought this would be the next best thing. If you blog it, they will come.

Here we go......